A 2026 survey of 467 University of Sydney undergraduate psychology students found that participants generated more and more accurate observable cues for alcohol intoxication than for cannabis intoxication.1 When unanswered cue fields were counted, accurate alcohol cues appeared in 63.2% of possible response slots, while accurate cannabis cues appeared in 37.3%. Research Highlights Alcohol cues …
A 2026 Add Health analysis found that combining major-depression and alcohol-use-disorder polygenic scores added 4.88% variance for comorbid MDD-AUD prediction, while same-trait scores added only 0.65% for MDD and 1.52% for AUD alone.1 The genetic signal is strongest where the clinical problem is hardest: depression plus alcohol-use disorder, not either diagnosis in isolation. Research Highlights …
Cocaine relapse circuitry looks different when alcohol is part of the history. In a rat model, inhibiting prelimbic cortex neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens core blocked cue-triggered cocaine seeking after cocaine alone, but failed after sequential cocaine-alcohol polysubstance use.1 Research Highlights PL-NAc inhibition split by drug history: in a 4-group DREADD experiment, inhibiting the …
A 2026 preprint following 964 adults who used a Chicago mobile medical unit for opioid use disorder care found 5 follow-up patterns over 12 months: 56% made 1 visit, while the remaining patients showed slow decline, fast decline, infrequent use, or continued use.1 Research Highlights The cohort was large for mobile OUD care: 3,528 OUD-related …
A 2026 randomized youth trial found that integrated exposure-based treatment reduced posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms more than supportive counseling, while substance-use changes were smaller and showed no clear treatment-specific advantage. Research Highlights COPE-A reduced PTSD more: youth receiving Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure – Adolescent version had a 17.00-point …
A 2026 cross-sectional school study involving 1,848 rural Thai teenagers found that 17.6% reported a tendency to use e-cigarettes, even though Thailand bans e-cigarette sale and importation.1 The strongest adjusted correlate was having ever considered smoking cigarettes: those teenagers had 6.71 times the odds of e-cigarette use tendency compared with teenagers who had never considered …
A 2026 laboratory study found no detectable acute-pain increase in frequent cannabis users after at least 12 hours of biochemically verified abstinence. Frequent users had higher THC exposure and higher plasma cannabinoid markers, but pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain ratings did not differ from occasional users.1 Research Highlights 75 healthy adults were tested: Pabon …